Tie plate



Nov. 30 1926.

G. M. HOGAN TIE PLATE Filed July 14, 1926 Fries.

l V. f i 1 a i j l i i i i ,Lnns (MANUFACTURING 1' or rnnirrors.

Gnoaen 1a, r-roean, orotrroaeopi triiers, asst-anonre COMPANY, orCHIC-AGO, rmlmors, a eenroua'rr 'I'IE PLATE.

Applieation filed July 14, 1926. Serial No. leases.

pressions will assist the embedded rid es in 1.

eiiectively preventing lateral movement or the plate on the tie.

This invention relates to an improved tie-plate as used by railroads forsupportmg the rails upon the wood ties. These plates provide a broadsupporting surl ate One ob'ectol the inventionwis to provide for therail, and prevent the rail trom a simple, eiiicient and durable tieplate,

working down into the ties, and also assist the spilres in transferringthe lateral thrusts of the rails to the ties, and hence to the roadbed.

It is not unusual to camber or arch the upper face of the plate in adirection longitudinal of the rail supporting surface so as toaccommodate the wave-motion oi the rail as the load rolls thereover. Itis also customary to provide ribs or projections of some sort on thelower face or the tie plate, which are pressed into the wood tie andhold the plate against lateral movement. These ribs are] usually of awedge shaped cross section, and the fairly sharp corners formed wherethe base of the ribernerges from the fiat bottom surface ofthe plate,act to grip the wood which has been co pressed between adjacent ribs,whereby the fibre is severed and the wood is broken away from the tie.

According to this present invention, the plate is not only arched orcambered on its upper surface, but is correspondingly cambered on itslower surface so that the plate will he or substantially equalthiclilower or g g g surface h p ness from side to side thereof. Forreag. 3 l g i a V i al t ler. sons hereinafter explained, the lower can:k n bstantially on the line 3-3 of her will usually be somewhat greaterthan Fig. 2. j the uppercalnher; a plurality of crossed igi a s rs er icse ti o i t secting ridges are form d 1 1 the taken substantially on theline l e of n 4 lov surface or the plate, the projecting 2, thatis, in adirection longitudinal er the edges of these ridges lying s'uhstantiallyin rail-supporting surra the plane oi the side edges ,oi the" plate" InFig. 5 is a view similar to other words, these ridges will have a totaltially broken-away), and-l. height varying from Zero at the edgesot' i-aly on the line a e of th pl tto the height oi the total curva- Figs 6and 'i are similar vertical sections t of th lowe c be git the nt r ftakensubstantially on the lines (3'6 and the plate, The widely flaringcurved sides 7-7, respectively, of l ig, 2. oi these ridges merge intothe bottoms f As indicated in the drawings, the tie the cupped shallowle rgsijoas f rm d b plate 1 is of the usual rectangular outline. tweenthe ridges. The botto s, of th s having an upper rail-sapportingsurfacef2 depressions are substantially tangent to, side flanges S and handbeing punched 5 or form part of the lower cambered surface t accomm datethe spikes 6, whereby tic f th ti late, These shallow curved deplate 1and the rail 7 are anchored to the pressio'nswill not grip the fibres ofthe tie 8. An upstanding rib or shoulder S) wood so as tohreak theinloose, and the low, bears against one side edge oi the rail base, widespreading ridges will be forced into {usually the outer side of the rii), to ta.

' i the fibres; V 'lhe up the spreading thrust imparted to the rail thewood without out i j V suction created in the shallow rounded. deby thetrainsvpassing thereover. oi the having an improved tie-engaging surfaceadapted to grip the tie and prevent lateral movement or the platethereon without unduly injuring the tie.

Another object is to provide a tie plate having an arched or eamheredupper rail supporting surface, and a lower surface adapted to evenlyengage the flat upper sur iiace of ti Y but so recessed that a st tiallyeven distribution oi metal is efi ecter throughout the area of the tieplate;

Another object is to provide an improved tie plate oi? the characternoted above, which may be easily and economically manufactured, andwhich is lighter, that is, requires less metal than those heretofore inuse, with out sacrificing strength or rigidity.

Other objects and advantages of this in vention will he more apparentfrom the following detailed description of one approved form of thetieplate.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the tie plate in use-between a rail and tie.

Fig, 2 is an enlarged plan view of the JJI llli

above is of the usual approved construction. The upper rail-supportingsurface 2 is cambered or arched in a direction longitudinal of the railand of the rib 9, the amount or curvature of this camber being indicatedat 03 in Fig. 4.

The lower surface of the plate is also sub stantially arched orcambered, as indicated by the dotted line 10 in Figs. at and 7 Theamount or curvature of this camber is indicated at y in Fig. l, and itwill be noted that this camber is usually greater than the camber ity ofthe upper surface, for reasons hereinafter explained.

The lower surface of the plate does not actually conform to the curvedsurface indicated by dotted line 10, since this lower surface isprovided with a plurality of crossed or intersecting ridges 11, whichform a checker-board pat-tern as indi'ated in Fig. 2., These ridges havewidely flaring or diverging curved sides, which mer into the bottomsurfaces of the shallow cupped depressions 12, the edges of which aredo' fined by these intersecting ridges.

Each of these depressions 12 is cupped out in such manner that no sharpangles or corners are present in any portion of the depression. Whilethe exact. curves used may be varied, it is preferable to have thedepressions curved from side to side as an arc of a large circle, asindicated in Fig. 6.

The corners which might otherwise be formed at the junction of the twocrossing cylindrical surfaces, are filled in as indicated in Fig. 7, at13, so that the entire shallow depression approaches closely to asection of a spherical surface, which is slightly distorted so that theridges 11 which outline the depression will form a rectangle with theprojecting edges of the ridges lying in the plane of the lower sideedges of the tie plate, 7

It will be noted that the depressions 12 at the center of the plate aredeeper than those at the side edges of the plate, the bottoms of all ofthese depressions being tangent to, or forming part of the imaginarycurved or cambered. surface 10, all as clearly indicated in Figs. l, 5and 7; The result is to approximate a lower curved or cambered surfaceprovided with a series of outstanding ridges, the projecting edges ofthese ridges all lying in the plane of the side edges of the tie alate.Since the lower cur vature or camber y is greater than the uppercurvature or camber w, the thickness of the main portion of the tieplate will be somewhat greater at the edges of the plate than at thecenter. However, the projecting ridges ll are higher and thicker at thecenter of the plate than near the edges thereof, so that the totalamount of metal and strength of the plate, is approximately the same atthe center as at the edges. The

lower surface of the tie plate, instead of being provided with sharplyprojecting ribs, is provided with a mildly fluted or Wavy surface, theprojecting portions of which will be embedded in the wooden tie by theload sustained thereon, without cuting or unduly injuring the fibre ofthe wood, Since there are no corners in the depressions to grip theembedded wood, but this wood is merely compressed to varying degrees bythe gradually rounded bottoms of the depressions, there will besubstantially no tendency to break loose the em bedded portion of thetie. At the same time, the interlocking surfaces, aided by the suctioncreated inthe cupped depressions 12, will be ample to prevent lateralmore ment between the tie and tie-plate.

It is desirable in the interests of economy,

to reduce the weight or amount of metal used in each tie plate as muchas can be done, without sacrificing the strength or "d't fth lt T 'tl''tl 11g1 1y 0 e p a e. o (.0 11s, 1 1e: been customary heretofore tohollow out portions of either the upper or lower surfaces of the plate,to remove metal where it was believed that the same could best bespared. It will be noted that in this improved tie plate the desiredarch or camber has been provided upon the upper surface of the plate,and at the same time material has been removed from the lower surface ofthe plate in such manner as to provide an improved gripping surface, andat the same time approach a cambered lower surface, similar in curvatureto that of the upper rail-supporting surface. The plate is ofsubstantially uniform strength and thickness throughout, a minimum ofmaterial is used, and the tie-engaging surface is so designed as tofirmly grip the tie without injuring it. r

This form of plate may also be rolled from thinner material, since, dueto the cambered construction, the actual thickness of the metalthroughout the plate is considerably less than the apparent over-allthickness of the plate. At the same time, the arched construction formedby. the intersect ing ridges strengthens-the central portion of theplate, so there is no likelihood of thc plate flattening out underloads.

Some of the broader features of this invention are disclosed and claimedin my copending application Serial 108,049, filed May 10, 1926, theclaims in this present application being limited improvement over saidprior invention.

I claim:

1. A tie-plate having its rail-supporting surface longitudinallycamberecl, and having its tie-engaging surface formed with a pluralityof depressions the bottoms of which substantially form a surface ofourvature similar tothe camber of the plate. 7

Pill) lid to the features of Q 2. A tie-plate having its rail-supportingsurface longitudinally camber-ed, and having its tie-engaging surfaceformed with a plurality of hollow cupped depressions the bottoms ofwhich are substantially tangent to an imaginary surface of curvaturesimilar to the camber of the plate.

3. A. tie-plate having its rail-supporting surface longitudinallycainbered, and having its tie-engaging surface formed with a pluralityof shallow cupped depressions the bottoms of which are substantiallytangent to an imaginary surface approximately parallel to the uppercainbered surface of the plate.

l. A tie plate having its upper and lower surfaces similarly cambered,the lower surface being provided with a series of pro jecting ridgeswhich define shallow depressions therebetween, the projecting edges ofthe ridges lying in substantially the same plane, and the bottoms of thedepressions being substantially tangent to the lower cambered surface ofthe plate.

5. A tie-plate having its upper and lower surfaces similarly cainbered,the lower surface being provided with a series of projecting ridgeswhich define shallow depressions therebetween, the projecting edges ofthe ridges lying in substantially the same plane, and the bottoms of thedepressions forming the lower cambered surface of the plate.

6. A tie-plate having its upper and lower surfaces similarly cambered,the lower surface being provided with a series of intersecting ridgeswhich outline shallow depressions therebetween, the projecting edges ofthe ridges lying in substantially the same plane, and the bottoms of thedepressions forming the lower cainbered surface of the plate.

7. A tie-plate having its upper and lower surfaces similarly calnbered,the lower sun face being provided with a series of inten secting ridgeswhich outline shallow depressions therebetween, the projecting edges ofthe ridges lying in substantially the same plane, and the bottoms of thedepressions being substantially tangent to the lower cambored surface ofthe plate.

GEORGE M. HOGAN.

